3 days ago

3 days ago

Behind the Lines – Week 1

Welcome to the first edition of Behind the Lines. On a weekly basis, we will cover the betting lines that stand out from the week that was in college basketball. In general I will stick to the relevant games that the majority of people can relate to. However, if there is an obscure team that scores a big upset or a powerhouse that can cover the spread against a cup cake then you will certainly see it here as well.

As far as format you will see below the day then a heading describing the game to follow. After that this match-up is listed with the point spread and then the final score. Lastly, we have the team who covered and by how much.

This was Feast Week on ESPN; thus there were some big games headlining the Thanksgiving week festivities.

Perfect line of the night:
UCLA +6 at TexasTexas 68, UCLA 64
UCLA covers: by 2

This data will help point out what teams are covering (even in losses) and what teams are not covering (even in wins). For example, it would have been nice to know that Michigan State did not cover against Maryland -7.5 or Wichita St. -14 going into their big game at Ford Field against UNC. At the same time UNC had covered against Oregon -17.5 and Notre Dame -10.5.

Now as the next couple weeks go by we will seen more clearly what teams are benefiting from spreads that are either too small or too large. For example, Miami (OH) has covered against UCLA and Xavier while beating (and thus covering) against Temple. This is the type of analysis that will take shape in the coming weeks.